Britain's Mercury Prize for music (complete with Simon Armitage appearance) was awarded last night to another seldom-heard band, Elbow, instead of going to Radiohead, and their innovative In Rainbows. It is good to see smaller, less-known bands celebrated by such awards - but surely In Rainbows was, quite simply, the most important record event of the 21st century (so far)? Not only did it alter the way music is made available to the world, but it presented the most upbeat, and even lyrical, songs that Thom Yorke and friends had ever recorded. It's a great, great album. Perhaps its reward will be in heaven.
THAT HANDSOME MAN A PERSONAL BRIEF REVIEW BY TODD SWIFT I could lie and claim Larkin, Yeats , or Dylan Thomas most excited me as a young poet, or even Pound or FT Prince - but the truth be told, it was Thom Gunn I first and most loved when I was young. Precisely, I fell in love with his first two collections, written under a formalist, Elizabethan ( Fulke Greville mainly), Yvor Winters triad of influences - uniquely fused with an interest in homerotica, pop culture ( Brando, Elvis , motorcycles). His best poem 'On The Move' is oddly presented here without the quote that began it usually - Man, you gotta go - which I loved. Gunn was - and remains - so thrilling, to me at least, because so odd. His elegance, poise, and intelligence is all about display, about surface - but the surface of a panther, who ripples with strength beneath the skin. With Gunn, you dressed to have sex. Or so I thought. Because I was queer (I maintain the right to lay claim to that
Comments
I agree that In Rainbows was one of the better music releases this past year. But I think the Mercury Prize was created with the ethos of promoting talented bands and musicians whose work deserves, but is yet to reach, a larger commercial audience. And with the release of Radiohead's substantial greatest hits on the back of In Rainbows, The Bends and OK Computer being the huge musical events they were (the best albums of the 90s, I'd say), and their regular slots as big festival headliners, one can hardly say the publicity of winning the Mercury would have really benefited them. Elbow, on the other hand, are a serious, off-beat and ambitious indie-rock band that, while not as noisy as many of their more successful contemporaries, are beginning to fuse their more thoughtful and innovative side with the belting, anthemic catchiness rock bands usually require to make it big.
I'd also say that I reckon the most important mainstream record of the 21st century so far would have to go to Klaxons' Myths of the Near Future rather than In Rainbows. I'm a fan of the latter as the review on my blog testifies to, but it isn't much of a musical leap from their previous, and in my opinion, much better, work. Klaxons' debut, meanwhile (winner of last year's Mercury) is an inventive, complex, allusion-riddled and often deceptively catchy album that brilliantly fuses 90s trance and dance genres with infectious, guitar-driven indie to impressive - if not always successful - effect. You should give it a listen if you haven't.
cheers,
B